consequences. we could end up with a situation, for example, where interest rates rise for everybody all throughout the country. effectively, a tax increase on everybody. because suddenly, whether you're using your credit card, you're trying to get a loan for a car or a student loan, businesses that are trying to make payroll, all of them could end up being impacted as a consequence of a default. now, what is important is that even as we raise the debt ceiling we also solve the problem of underlying debt and deficits. i'm glad that congressional leaders don't want to default, but i think the american people expect more than that. they expect that we actually try to solve this problem when we get our fiscal house in order. during the course of these discussions can congressional leaders, what i've tried to emphasize is we have a unique

opportunity to do something big. we have a chance to stabilize america's finances for a decade, for 15 years or 20 years. if we're willing to seize the moment. what that would require would be some shared sacrifice and a balanced approach that says we're going to make significant cuts in domestic spending. and i have already said i'm willing to take down domestic spending to the lowest percentage of our overall economy since dwight eisenhower. it also requires cuts in defense spending. and i've said that in addition to the $400 billion that we've already cut from defense spending we're willing to look for hundreds of billions more. it would require us taking on health care spending. and that includes looking at medicare and finding ways that we can stabilize the system so that it is available not just for this generation but for

future generations. and it would require revenues. it would require, even as we're asking the person who needs a student loan or the senior citizen or, you know, people -- veterans who are trying to get by on a disability check, even as we're trying to make sure that all those programs were affordable, we're also saying to folks like myself that can afford it that we are able to do it a bit more, that millionaires and billionaires can afford to do a little bit more. that we can close corporate loopholes so that oil companies aren't getting unnecessary tax breaks or that corporate jet owners aren't getting unnecessary tax breaks. if we take that approach, then i am confident that we can not

only impress the financial markets but more importantly we can impress the american people that this town can actually get something done once in a while. now, let me acknowledge what everybody understands. it is hard to do a big package. my republican friends have said that they're not willing to do revenues. and they have repeated that on several occasions. my hope, though, is that they're listening not just to lobbyists or special interests here in washington but they're also listening to the american people because it turns out poll after poll, many done by your organizations, show that it's not just democrats who think we need to take a balanced approach, it's republicans as well. the clear majority of republican voters think that any deficit reduction package should have a balanced approach and should include some revenues. that's not just democrats. that's the majority of republicans.

you've got a whole slew of republican officials from previous administrations. you've got a bipartisan commission that has said that we need revenues. so this is not just a democratic understanding. this is an understanding that i think the american people hold, that we should not be asking sacrifices from middle-class folks who are working hard every day, from the most vulnerable in our society, we should not be asking them to make sacrifices, we're asking the most fortunate in our society to make some sacrifices as well. so i am still pushing for us to achieve a big deal. but what i also said to the group is if we can't do the biggest deal possible then let's still be ambitious, let's still try to at least get a down payment on deficit reduction. and that we can actually

accomplish without huge changes in revenue or significant changes in entitlements but we could still send a signal that we are serious about this problem. the fallback position, the third option and i think the least attractive option is one in which we raise the debt ceiling but we don't make any progress on deficit and debt because if we take that approach this issue is going to continue to plague us for months and years to come. and i think it's important for the american people that everybody in this town set politics aside, that everybody in this town sets our individual interests aside, and we try to do some tough stuff. and i've already taken some heat from my party for being willing to compromise. my expectation and hope is that everybody in the coming days is going to be willing to

compromise. last point i'll make, and then i'll take questions. we are obviously running out of time. and so what i've said to the members of congress is that you need over the next 24 to 36 hours to give me some sense of what your plan is to get the debt ceiling raised through whatever mechanisms they can think about and show me a plan in terms of what you're doing for deficit and debt reduction. if they show me a serious plan, i'm ready to move. even if it requires some tough decisions on my part. and i'm hopeful that over the next couple of days we'll see this logjam break -- this logjam broken because the american people i think understandably want to see washington do its job. all right? so with that, let me see who's on the list. we're going to start with jake tapper. >> thank you, mr. president. you've said that reducing the deficit will require shared sacrifice. we know -- we have an idea of the taxes that you would like to

see raised on corporations and on americans in the top two tax brackets. but we don't yet know what you specifically are willing to do when it comes to entitlement spending. in the interest of transparency, leadership, and also showing the american people that you have been negotiating in good faith, can you tell us one structural reform that you are willing to make to one of these entitlement programs that would have a major impact on deficit? would you be willing to raise the retirement age? would you be willing to means test social security or medicare? >> we've said we would be willing to look at all those approaches. i've laid out some criteria in terms of what would be acceptable. so for example, i've said very clearly that we should make sure that current beneficiaries as much as possible are not affected. but we should look at what can we do in the out years so that

over time some of these programs are more sustainable. i've said that means testing on medicare, meaning people like myself if -- i'm going to be turning 50 in a week -- >> happy birthday. >> i'm starting to think a little bit more about medicare eligibili eligibility. yeah. i'm going to get my aarp card soon. and the discounts. but the -- you know, you can envision a situation where for somebody in my position, me having to pay a little bit more on premiums or co-pays or things like that would be appropriate. and again, that could make a difference. so we've been very clear about where we're willing to go. what we're not willing to do is to restructure the program in the ways that we've seen coming out of the house over the last

several months, where we would voucherize the program and you potentially have senior citizens paying $6,000 more. i view social security and medicare as the most important social safety nets that we have. i think it is important for them to remain as social insurance programs that give people some certainty and reliability in their golden years. but it turns out that making some modest modifications in those entitlements can save you trillions of dollars. and it's not necessary to completely revamp the program. what is necessary is to say, you know, how do we make some modifications, including, by the way, on the provider side. i think that it's important for to us keep in mind that, you know, drug companies, for example, are still doing very well through the medicare program. and although we have made drugs

more available at a cheaper price to seniors who are on medicare through the affordable care act, there's more work to potentially be done there. so if you look at a balanced package, even within the entitlement programs, it turns out you can save trillions of dollars while maintaining the co core integrity of the program. >> retirement age? >> i'm not going to get into specifics. as i said, jake, everything you mentioned are things we have discussed. but what i'm not going to do is to ask for even -- well, let me put it this way. if you're a senior citizen and a modification potentially costs you 100 or 200 bucks a year more or even if it's not affecting current beneficiaries, somebody who's 40 today, 20 years from now is going to end up having to pay a little bit more. the least i can do is to say that people who are making a

million dollars or more have to do something as well. and that's the kind of trade-off, that's the kind of balanced approach and shared sacrifice that i think most americans agree needs to happen. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. president. i just thought i heard you kind of open up the door to this middle of the road possibility. i think you said show me a serious proposal -- a serious plan and then i'm prepared to move. just a few minutes before you came here, house republicans said they'd be voting on this $2.4 trillion package as a balanced budget amendment. is that dead on arrival, or does it short-circuit what you expect to happen in the next 24 or 36 hours? >> i haven't looked at it yet. and i think -- my expectation is that you'll probably see the house vote on a couple of things just to make political statements. but if you're trying to get to

2.4 trillion without any revenue, then you are effectively gutting a whole bunch of discretion -- domestic spending that is going to be too burdensome and is not going to be something that i would support. you know, just to be very specific, we've identified over a trillion dollars in discretionary cuts both in defense and domestic spending. that's hard to do. that requires essentially that you freeze spending. and when i say freeze, that means you're not getting inflation, so that these programmatic cuts that over the course of ten years you'd be looking at potentially a 10% cut in domestic spending. if you then double that number, you're then at that point really

taking a big bite out of programs that are really important to ordinary folks. i mean, you're talking then about students accumulating thousands of dollars more in student loan debt every year. you're talking about, you know, federal workers and veterans and others potentially having to pay more in terms of their health care. so you know, i have not seen a credible plan, having gone through the numbers, that would allow to you get to 2$2.4 trillion without really hurting ordinary folks. and the notion that we would be doing that and not asking anything from the wealthiest among us or from closing corporate loopholes, that doesn't seem like a serious plan to me. i mean, the notion that, for example, oil company tax breaks, whether oil executives

themselves say they probably don't need them to have an incentive to go out and drill oil and make hundreds of billions of dollars, you know, if we haven't seen the other side even budge on, that then i think most democrats would say that's not a serious plan. one last point on the balanced budget amendment. i don't know what version they're going to be presenting. but some of the balanced budget amendments that have been floating up there, this cap -- or cut, cap and balance, for example, when you look at the numbers what you're looking at is cuts of half a trillion dollars below the ryan budget in any given year. i mean, it would require cutting social security or medicare substantially. and i think it's important for everybody to understand that all of us believe that we need to

get to a point where eventually we can balance the budget. we don't need a constitutional amendment to do that. what we need to do is to do our jobs, and we have to do it the same way a family would do it. a family, if they get overextended and their credit card is too high, they don't just stop paying their bills. what they do is they say how do we start cutting our monthly costs, we keep on making payments but we start cutting out the things that aren't necessary, and we do it in a way that maintains our credit rating, we do it in a way that's responsible, we don't stop sending our kids to college, we don't stop fixing the boiler or the roof that's leaking, we do things in a sensible, responsible way. we can do the same thing when it comes to the federal budget. >> so within that 2 trillion band, if you end up going for this middle of the road package which i think you referred to as your second option, would that need to have for your signature some sort of stimulative measure, either payroll tax extension or the extension of

unemployment insurance? >> i think both would be good for the economy. a payroll tax cut is something that has put $1,000 in the pocket of the typical american family over the last six, seven months and has helped offset some of the rising costs in gasoline and food. and i think american consumers and american businesses would benefit from a continuation of that tax cut next year. unemployment insurance. obviously, unemployment is still too high. there are a lot of folks out there who are doing everything they can to find a job. but the market is still tight out there. and for us to make sure they are able to stay in their homes potentially or they are able to still support their families i think is very important and contributes to the overall economy. so i think there are ways that you can essentially take a little over a trillion dollars

in serious discretionary cuts, meaningful discretionary cuts, and then start building on top of that some cuts in non-health care mandatory payments, you know, ethanol programs or how we calculate various subsidies to various industries. that could potentially be layered on. and we could still do something like a tax cut for ordinary families that would end up benefiting the economy as a whole. that is not my preferable option, though. i want to be clear. i look at this like a layer cake. you can do the bare minimum, and then you can make some progressively harder decisions to solve the problem more and more. and we're in a position now where if we're serious about this and everybody's willing to compromise we can, as i said before, fix this thing probably

for a decade or more. and that's something that i think would be good for the overall business climate and would encourage the american people that washington actually is willing to take care of its business. >> does it not require your signature? is that what i heard? >> i'm sorry. i lost you on that one. >> you're saying these stimulative measures would be good for the business economy and good for the economy but you're not saying they're necessary to be included for you to sign a 2 trillion or 4 trillion -- >> i've got to look at the whole package. i don't know what the speaker or mr. mcconnell are willing to do at this point. >> chuck todd. >> mr. president, this process got kind of ugly in the last week, and it appears from the outside that things even got a little futile with these meetings. any regrets on your role in how this went? and do you have any regrets that you never took -- 4 trillion over ten years, and spent the last six months selling that as a balanced package to the

american people? >> no. first of all, i think this notion that things got ugly is just not true. we've been meeting every single day. and we have had very constructive conversations. you know, the american people are not interested in the reality tv aspects of who said what and did somebody's feelings get hurt. they're interested in solving the budget problem and the deficits and the debt. and so that may be good for chatter in this town. it's not something that folks out in the country are obsessing about. i think with respect to boles simpson it was important for us to -- boles simpson wouldn't have happened had i not set up the structure for, it as you will recall. this was originally bipartisan legislation that some of the republican supporters of decided to vote against when i said i supported it. that seems to be a pattern that i'm still puzzled by.

so we set it up. they issued a report. and what i said was this provides us an important framework to begin discussions. but there were aspects of boles simpson that i said from very early on would not the approach i would take. on defense spending a huge amount of their discretionary savings came from the defense spending. i think we've got to cut defense but as commander in chief we've got to make sure we cut it in a way that recognizes we're still in the middle of a war, we're winding down another war and we've got a whole bunch of veterans we've got to care for as they come home. so what we've said is a lot of the components of bowles-simpson we are willing to embrace, for example the domestic spending cuts that they recommend we've basically taken. others, like on defense, we have

taken some but not all the recommendations because it's important for it to be consistent with our defense needs and our security needs. the bottom line is that this is not an issue of salesmanship to the american people. the american people are sold. the american people are sold. i just want to repeat this. >> do you think it would have been different if you had republicans supporting -- >> chuck. excuse me. chuck, you have 80% of the american people who support a balanced approach. 80% of the american people support an approach that includes revenues and includes cuts. so the notion that somehow the american people aren't sold is not the problem. the problem is members of congress are dug in ideologically into various positions because they boxed themselves in with previous statements. and you know, so this is not a

matter of the american people knowing what the right thing to do is. this is a matter of congress doing the right thing and reflecting the will of the american people. and if we do that we will have solved this problem. laura montgomery. >> thank you, mr. president. i want to ask you about the two trains that seem to be rolling down the tracks down the hill. specifically, leader mcconnell has laid out an elaborate plan to raise the debt limit. he said last night that it looks like they're going to pair that with a new committee that would be tasked with coming up with the big solution that you talked about by the end of the year. your comment on that proposal. meanwhile, in the house they're saying, well, we could be flexible on some of our demands if we could get a balanced budget amendment, and they note that vice president biden voted for a bba in 1997. is there any way that that could be part of a solution? is there any version of a bba that you would support? >> first of all, for the consumption of the general public, bba meaning a balanced

budget amendment. i think i already addressed this question earlier. we don't need a constitutional amendment to do our jobs. the constitution already tells us to do our jobs. and to make sure that the government is living within its means and making responsible choic choices. so this notion that we're going to go through a multiyear process instead of seizing the moment now and taking care of our problems is a typical washington response. we don't need more studies. we don't need a balanced budget amendment. we simply need to make these tough choices and be willing to take on our bases. and everybody knows it. i mean, we could have a discussion right here about what the numbers look like, and we know what's necessary. and here's the good news. it turns out we don't have to do

anything radical to solve this problem. contrary to what some folks say, that we're not greece. we're not portugal. it turns out that our problem is we cut taxes without paying for them over the last decade. we ended up insitituting new programs like a prescription drug program for seniors that was not paid for. we fought two wars. we didn't pay for them. you know, we had a bad recession that required a recovery act and stimulus spending and helping states and all that accumulated and there's interest on top of that. and to unwind that what's required is that we roll back those tax cuts on the wealthiest individuals, that we clean up our tax code so we're not giving

out a bunch of tax breaks to companies that don't need them and we're not creating jobs. we cut programs that we don't need, and we invest in those things that are going to help us grow. and every commission that's been out there has said the same thing and basically taken the same approach within the margin of error. so my general view is that if the american people looked at this they'd say boy, some of these decisions are tough, but they don't require us to gut medicare or social security, they don't require us to stop helping young people go to college, they don't require us to stop, you know, helping families who've got a disabled child, they don't require us to violate our obligations to our veterans, and they don't require, quote unquote, job-killing tax cuts.

they require us to make some modest adjustments to get our house in order. and we should do it now. with respect to senator mcconnell's plan, as i said, i think it is a -- it is constructive to say that if washington operates as usual and can't get anything done let's at least avert armageddon. i'm glad that people are serious about the consequences of default. but we have two problems here. one is raising the debt ceiling. this is a problem that was manufactured in washington because every single one of the leaders over there have voted for raising the debt ceiling in the past and has typically been a difficult but routine process, and we do have a genuine

underlying problem that our debt and deficits are too big. so senator mcconnell's approach solves the first problem. it doesn't solve the second problem. i'd like to solve that second problem. >> are you looking at this option as a more likely outcome at this point, or can you share with us why you have some hope that the talks that have been going on might actually produce -- >> i always have hope. don't you remember my campaign? even after -- even after being here for 2 1/2 years, i continue to have hope. you know why i have hope? is because of the american people. you know, when i talk to them and i meet with them, as frustrated as they are about this town they still reflect good common sense. and all we have to do is align with that common sense on this

problem. it can get solved. and i'm assuming that at some point members of congress are going to listen. i just want to repeat, every republican -- i won't say every. a number of republican former elected officials, they're not in office now, would say a balanced approach that includes some revenue is the right thing to do. the majority of republican voters say that approach is the right thing to do. the proposal that i was discussing with speaker boehner fell squarely in line with what most republican voters think we should do. so the question is at what point do folks over there start listening to the people who put them in office? now's a good time. sam young. >> good morning, mr. president. i'd like to add to something

chuck asked in his question as to the tone of this debate. i remember your campaign and i'm guessing while it hasn't been ugly as you say it hasn't been what you had in mind when you said you wanted to chait tone in washington. when you have senator mcconnell make comments that you've used those negotiations through the prism of 2012 how much does that poison the well going forward? and if you can get this done, how much can you get done with congress in the next year and a half? >> let me say this. and i'm not trying to poke at you guys. i generally don't watch what is said about me on cable. i generally don't read what's said about me even in "the hill." and so you know, part of this job is having a thick skin and understanding a lot of this stuff's not personal. that's not going to be an impediment to -- whatever senator mcconnell says about me

on the floor of the 1234senate not going to be an impediment to us getting a deal done. the question is going to be whether at any given moment we're willing to set politics aside, at least briefly, in order to get something done. i don't expect politicians not to think about politics. but every so often there are issues that are urgent, that have to be attended to and require us to do things we don't like to do, that run contrary to our base, they get some constituency that helped elect us agitated. we're supposed to be stepping back and looking at it from the perspective of what's good for the country. and there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to get things done. look, we've been obsessing over the last couple of weeks about raising the debt ceiling and

reducing the debt and deficit. i'll tell you what the american people are obsessing about right now-s that unemployment is still way too high and too many folks' homes are still underwater and prices of things that they need, not just that they want, are going up a lot faster than their paychecks are if they've got a job. and so even after we solve this problem we've still got a lot of work to do. hans was mentioning we should renew the payroll tax for another year, we should make unemployment insurance mr. there for another year -- >> sir, that's not my point. >> but you were making the point about whether that issue could be wrapped into this deal. my point is those are a whole other set of issues that we need to be talking about and working on. i've got an infrastructure bank bill that would start putting construction workers back to work, rebuilding our roads and bridges. we should be cooperating on that. most of the things that i've

proposed to help spur on additional job growth are traditionally bipartisan. i've got three trade deals sitting ready to go. and these are all trade deals that the republicans told me were their top priorities. they said this would be one of the best job creators that we could have. and yet it's still being held up because some folks don't want to provide trade adjustment assistance to people who maybe displaced as a consequence of trade. surely, we can come up with a compromise to solve those problems. there will be huge differences between now and november 2012 between the parties. and whoever the republican nominee is, we're going to have a big, serious debate about what we believe is the right way to guide america forward and to win the future.

and i'm confident that i will win that debate because i think that we've got -- we've got the better approach. but in the mean time surely we can every once in a while sit down and actually do something that helps the american people right here, right now. >> but it's in the man-time, sir, i'm curious about. as you just said, raising the debt ceiling is apparently fairly routine but it's brought us to the point of economic armageddon, as you said. if you can get past this one, how can you get any agreement with congress on those big issues you talked about? >> i am going to keep on working and i'm going to keep on trying. and what i'm going to do is to hope that in that is right p debate has focused the american people's attention a little bit more and will subject congress to scrutiny and i think increasingly the american people are going to say to themselves, you know, what if a party or a

politician is constantly taking the position my way or the highway, constantly being locked into ideologically rigid positions that we're going to remember at the polls. it's kind of cumulative. the american people aren't paying attention to the details of every aspect of this negotiation, but i think what the american people are paying attention to is who seems to be trying to get something done and who seems to be just posturing and trying to score political points. and i think it's going to be in the interests of everybody who wants to continue to serve in this town to make sure that they are on the right side of that impression. and that's, by the way, what i said in the meeting two days ago. i was very blunt. i said the american people do not want to see a bunch of posturing. they don't want to hear a bunch

of sound bites. what they want is for us to solve problems. and we all have to remember that. that's why we were sent here. last question. scott horsley. >> thank you, mr. president. i wonder if you've seen any sign in the daily meetings that republicans are being more aligned with that american majority or if we are in the same place today that we were on monday. >> it's probably better for you to ask them how they're thinking. i do think that, and i've said this before, speaker boehner in good faith was trying to see if it was possible to get a big deal done. he had some problems in his caucus. my hope is that after some reflection, after we walked through all the numbers this week and we looked at all the options that there may be some movement, some possibility, some

interest to still get something more than the bare minimum done. but we're running out of time. that's the main concern that i have at this point. we have enough time to do a big deal. you know, i've got reams of paper and printouts and spreadsheets on my desk. and so we know how we can create a package that solves the deficits and debt for a significant period of time. but in order to do that we've got to get started now. and that's why i'm expecting some answers from all the congressional leaders sometime in the next couple of days. and i have to say this is tough on the democratic side, too. some of the things that i've talked about and i've said i'm willing to see happen, there are some democrats who think that's absolutely unacceptable. and so that's where i'd have a selling job, chuck, is trying to

sell some in our party that if you are a progressive you should be concerned about debt and deficit just as much as if you're a conservative. and the reason is because if the only thing we're talking about over the next year, two years, five years is debt and deficits then it's very hard to start talking about how do we make investments in community colleges so that our kids are trained, how do we actually rebuild $2 trillion worth of crumbling infrastructure. you know, if you care about making investments in our kids and making investments in our infrastructure and making investments in basic research, then you should want our fiscal house in order so that every time we propose a new initiative somebody doesn't just throw up their hands and say oh, more big spending, more government. it would be very helpful for us to be able to say to the

american people, our fiscal house is in order. and so now the question is what should we be doing to win the future and make ourselves more competitive and create more jobs, and what aspects of what government's doing are a waste and we should eliminate? and that's the kind of debate that i'd like to have. all right? thank you guys. >> all right. so there he is, the president of the united states, walking out of the briefing room in the west wing of the white house, spending about 40 minutes, an opening statement followed by q and a. suzanne, the president reiterating his goal, it seems increasingly unlikely, would be a massive $4 trillion cut in spending. but it's accompanied by an increase in tax revenue, something the republicans oppose. his second objective, something more modest, maybe 2 trillion, 2.5 trillion, but that also includes increased tax revenue. the republicans resisting on that.

based on what he's saying, unless there's some major surprise, suzanne, it looks like that fallback position, that third option, something he's reluctant to endorse but clearly is ready to endorse if necessary to avoid a default, the mitch mcconnell proposal, is something they're going to have to do, at least in the short term, to avoid the nation's credit worthiness going down the tubes right now. it's not a pretty picture out there, but we'll see what happens over the next couple of days. >> i thought it was interesting, wolf, because the president, it seems like what he's trying to do is appear as the reasonable party in all of this, the grownup in the room, if you will. and the president reached out. he seemed to be telling the american people, look, he says, it requires modest adjustments to get our fiscal house in order here, that this is not going to be difficult. he even tried to paint those talks. he said they're not ugly but i was very blunt in my language. i think you're trying see him strike some sort of middle ground here to appeal to the american public and at least put some pressure on republicans and democrats as well to make the kind of sacrifices that are

necessary. i want to go to our alison kosik who's at the new york stock exchange because i know alison, a lot of people are thinking about what the president said. we know there are various proposals, there are a lot of big numbers that are out there, but a lot of people want to know, retirees, am i going to get my social security benefits come august 3rd? student loans, are they in trouble? car notes. is that going to be a problem? we heard the president say interest rates, if they go up it's going to pose major problems for a lot of people. is that the scenario that is going to play out here that you see as being really a legitimate concern for people to have? >> well, according to what the president said just this week, suzanne. he said you know, what come august 3rd i don't know if you're going to get your social security check. you know, what's going to wind up happening is the government's going to have to prioritize its obligations. and that means all of its payments. but there is a chance that some of those payments won't go out. but you know, at this point when you look at how the markets are

reacting i've been watching the numbers as the president's been speaking. we're still just kind of sitting at the flat line. we're in positive territory here. not seeing much of a reaction. i don't know. maybe it's a case of like an ostrich's head in the sand at this point. investors not really realizing what's going on. but they are not rattled by this at all right now about this debt ceiling stalemate. suzanne? >> and what about these credit agencies, moody's and standard & poor's? what does that mean? has the damage already been done if they are threatening to lower the credit rating of the united states? >> you know, all three have come out saying various statements. but the difference between the one we got from standard & poor's is that they're taking it a step forward. they're putting the u.s. on notice that there's a 1 in 2 chance that they will go ahead and downgrade the u.s.'s stellar credit rating, which is aaa status, which is the best that there is, if washington doesn't get its act together. i think what s&p is really

looking for is they're really looking for an agreement on deficit reduction tharks real, really looking for the long-term solution. and they are threatening that even just the possibility of the government not being able to meet its obligations could result in a lowered credit rating and then we can see where the chips fall after, that suzanne. >> our incredible debt. essentially china holding on to this. what is the role of china in the impact around the world for this potential crisis i? want you to first of all listen to fareed zakaria, what he told john king yesterday, and then we'll come back to that. >> i think the chinese government is actually being very responsible. if we held a trillion dollars' worth of yuan, china's currency, and they would have been playing this insane game of political partisanship, we would be complaining. the chinese have been very quiet so far. and by the way, one of the reasons they're quiet is no one wants to raise the panic because no one wants to drive those interest rates up. this is the crucial thing to understand. once we drive those interest rates up, they will not come

down easily. the global financial system rests on one sort of bedrock, and that is that u.s. treasury bills are the safest, most liquid, cheapest form of debt in the world. >> so alison, i guess the question is at what point do the chinese give up and think, you know what, we're tired of this, this is no longer a good investment? are they at that point? >> you know, we're already seeing -- you know, we know that china, we have a trade deficit with china, first of all, because they're the biggest buyer of our debt. they have full faith in the dollar and in our debt. but the problem is is that if one shoe should drop then it's questionable whether or not they're going to keep buying that debt. we're even seeing them kind of diversify. i'm talking about china diversifying and buying more euros these days instead of the dollar because of what's going on with the debt ceiling. >> all right, alison. i want to go back to our own wolf blitzer because wolf, we heard the president saying that, you know, mcconnell's plan here, in a way it was just trying to

get something done, recognizing that very little can get done with this government in this kind of atmosphere, but they want to avoid financial armageddon, a crisis. >> you heard him also say rather dramatically the united states is not greece, the united states is not portugal, it will be done one way or another, people don't have to worry, the international community does not have to worry, the u.s. will pay its debts one way or another. it looks increasingly likely that mitch mcconnell proposal is the way it's going to get done. but we'll be surprised if some other of these more ambitious proposals manages to get through given the very, very strong differences. let's bring in our own chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. i was also intrigued, jessica. the president made it clear, he was asked about cuts in medicare, changes in medicare. we did hear him saying specifically he is indeed open to what's called means testing for more wealthy, for wealthier medicare recipients. they would pay more than

middle-class or poor medicare recipients. i know that's going to cause some controversy out there. but the president saying he's willing to resist, he's willing to go up against his own democratic party base on some of these issues like medicare, social security, entitlement spending. >> reporter: absolutely, wolf. he has said not only will he means test, so in other words make the wealthier take on a little bit more of the burden of their own payments, but they've also made it clear that among the things they'd put on the table as part of this "big deal" is raising the eligibility age for medicare, something that is also a wildfire within their democratic base, and making providers pay -- reducing payments potentially to providers, changing the payment structure for drug companies, you heard him saying. all these things are those hot-button issues that would have made political difficulty for him and his party in the election season. and that's one of the reasons

you hear so much frustration from the white house and from democrats when they say they think they put it all out there, they think they tried hard to cut a deal, and they don't feel like they've gotten equal acceptance from republicans in making equal overtures in trying to cut a deal. of course, you hear a very different story from republicans. but those are big offers in the minds of democrats. and i'll tell you, wolf, i am hearing, and as we've been reporting, there is a real sense here that the mcconnell plan, i began hearing this as early as yesterday morning, that the mcconnell plan has taken over a lot of these talks as the increasingly likely plan, a version of the mcconnell-reid plan the likely option in going forward to get these debt ceiling talks raised. the other option is we heard the president say maybe there would be some pared down version of raising the debt ceiling without deficit reduction but he clearly did not like that. wolf? >> yeah.

and what's also obvious now is that mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, is working more closely with harry reid, the democratic majority leader in the senate. so it looks like that's where the action is right now. very quickly, jessica, is the president staying in town this weekend, going to cam david, someplace else? is he going to be around if there's some new proposal that they decide saturday, sunday they're going to get together? >> reporter: no, no, he's available, he's here, he can meet with them. and there's nothing announced, nothing scheduled. but i wouldn't be surprised if they do add some kind of meeting to the schedule over the weekend. i expect to be working, wolf. >> i expect you'll be working. maybe all of us will be working. but that's life in the fast lane. all right, suzanne. i don't know if you're going to be working. but you're ready to go to work if necessary, right? >> absolutely. we're all going to be working, wolf. i have a feeling we're all going to be working this weekend on this story. this isn't going away. i want to bring in our congressional correspondent kate bolduan because kate, we've heard about a lot of plans here and the people behind them, the republicans, boehner, mcconnell, cantor. give us a sense behind the scenes, who's running the show

here? who's in charge? who's driving the debate when it comes to the republican side? >> reporter: well, right now all this week despite speculation that there's tension between house republican leaders i'll tell you that they have been very -- they've made very much a point to come out, to tamp down that kind of speculation, and present a unified front that they are all on the same page, repeatedly saying that very same phrase, "we're all on the same page." and they did that same thing this morning in come out and presenting after a big meeting with their entire caucus in the house, coming out and presenting what they say is their plan, their plan for now, i guess we should say, this idea of cut, cap and balance. it's a bill that's very popular among house conservatives and conservatives in general. but i'll tell you, as you just heard in that press conference, the president seemed to pour cold water on that pretty quickly saying it's not something that he thinks is a good idea and in no uncertain terms that he he does not support. and especially this idea of a

balanced budget amendment, that's something that is being pushed here, has been talked about amongst conservatives but is really being pushed starting this morning, getting the backing of house republican leadership, suzanne. they're saying that a balanced budget amendment would be contingent on the fact that they would agree to raise the debt ceiling, and the president said very flatly we don't need an amendment to the constitution to do our jobs. >> and real quickly here, kate-s there anyone in the republican leadership who's saying that tax increases are okay, that that is on the table, or is that is still just no go? >> reporter: very much they're holding a hard line. they're saying tax hikes are not good for the economy, not good to put in place in the middle of a jobs crisis and they are not supporting that at all. but again, they have -- i was told by a boehner aide just this morning the house has cleared its schedule so we'll see how things progress over the weekend. >> thank you, kate. wolf? >> i want to get gloria borger's perspective, our chief political analyst. it was interesting. once again the president, without mentioning president bush by name --

>> right. >> -- he made it clear whoa believ who he believes is responsible for this current economic crisis in the united states. he said there were tax cuts throughout the '90s -- excuse me, in the bush administration, two rounds of tax cuts that weren't paid for, there were drug benefits for thefor, and two wars, iraq and afghanistan that were not paid for, and a bad recession that somebody was responsible for creating. and if you listen to the republicans, they are saying 2 1/2 years of the obama administration and the enormous growth in spending, that's to blame. >> i heard the same thing you heard. it's clear that they won't use george w. bush's name anymore, because the american public has said the statute of limitations is up on that, you cannot blame your predecessor anymore, and he

did go through that litany. he did make the case i am on the side of the american public and the republicans are on the wrong side of public opinion on this. 80% of the polls that we looked at showed 67% of the american public wants to get a deal that has both revenue and spending cuts. but when you look at the internals of those polls, they also show the republican party itself is with the republican leaders in saying no taxes. it's kind of a split in the republican party for sure, but the overwhelming number comes from when you add in independent voters and democratic voters. so the president is talking to his party and the republicans are talking to theirs. >> what they are going after is the independent voters, the democrats and the republicans, that's what he needs if he wants to be re-elected. >> suzanne, one thing we will

have to do is a fact check on some point on one of the most sensitive issues that the president raised in the news consequence fruns today, when he said flatly said, and this is a sensitive issue, he said i don't watch those cable news shows. we will have to see if it's true, if he watches your show or my show, if that's true, if he does not watch the cable news show, that's a huge story. >> yeah, i don't believe him. i think he's watching. i totally think he's watching. he's watching our shows, wolf, no doubt. we will check the stories making news right after this, including new details on al qaeda's plans to target the president. of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites...

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that's, that's a complete dramatization of course, but you get my point. vo: geico 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. want to get you up to speed in other big news happening this friday. president obama and afghan war commander, david general paw tray yes, were listed as specific al qaeda targets. they wanted to attack their planes when they were in the region. the plot was uncovered in the material seized by u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s by bin laden's capture. brooks has denied she new reporters were hacking phones of celebrities, politicians and crime victims. in a statement today brooks says i feel a deep sense of

responsibility for the people we have hurt. i want to reiterate how sorry i am for what we now know to have taken place. rebecca brooks along with rupert murdoch and his son james are all to appear before the parliament to testify next week. the bureau is checking claims that murdoch's british newspapers were trying to get into the voicemails of the victims of 9/11. >> it's not any of their business. they can ask and if we want to tell we can tell, but they cannot just trample on the law. they should be held accountable. casey anthony is a free woman on sunday. we will look at what life will look like for her after jail.

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from jail on sunday. there are intense security plans already in place. >> prisoners are released every day from the orange county, florida jail. but perhaps none of them with the level of notoriety that will greet casey anthony when she greets sunday after her stunning acquittals. her attorney talked to abc news about how her notoriety could bring danger. >> i am afraid for her. >> will she have bodyguards? >> you know, we're in the process of trying to take that next step for her and assist her in that regard. so i don't know. >> now there is an intense security plan in place. casey anthony will be released from this jail on sunday, as early as 12:01 a.m. we don't know how she'll be

taken out or what time she will go. once she is safety gone, we will be allowed to televise the images of her going free. >> i don't think they can treat her like any other inmate in terms of the release. it would be irresponsible given the frenzy surrounding casey anthony. again, while she is in their custody prior to release, they have to protect her. so that release is still part of their purview. >> where will casey anthony go and will she change her appearance? after all, this is a woman's face that is known everywhere in the country. >> if they are doing the right thing and doing their jobs they will have to explain to her that there is real hatred out there for her, and there have been death threats, that she cannot just walk among the population. >> cheney mason has issued some

speculation. >> she's only 25 years old. a decade from now hopefully she will have stability in her life, and maybe a husband and they can be somewhere in montana and start over. >> casey anthony's inner gee to montana or elsewhere is only a couple of days away. at the top of the hour, i am suzanne malveaux. for the second time this week president obama took his case for a long-term budget fix to the american people, but a deal remains out of week after a week of daily negotiations. the immediate concern is the debt ceiling, the government's ability to borrow money runs out august 2nd, unless congress races the limit, and that means washington will not be able to pay its bills.

>> all the leaders have a desire that the united states does not default. that is a good thing. i think we should not even be this close to a deadline. >> senate leaders from both parties are working on a backup plan to increase the debt ceiling without any corresponding tax increases. conservatives are insisting on deep cuts in spending. rebecca brooks quit her corporate job at rupert murdoch's bureau today. she has denied that she knew there were being phone hacks.

her statement said i want to reiterate how sorry i am for what we know now to have taken place. the pentagon says a rogue nation stole thousands of sensitive digital files last march. officials say a foreign government got into a defense contractors computers, and deputy defense secretary did not name the country. >> a single intrusion this past march, and 24,000 files were making and we think it was done by a foreign intelligence service, another nation's state was behind it. >> he also put out a reminder of a new pentagon policy. a cyber attack on the defense department that is serious enough to be designated as an act of war may be met with a military response. well, a bullseye on suspected al qaeda militants in

yes, ma'am men today. two security forces say a u.s. drone hit a station the mill gunts had taken over. civilians make up more than half of the dead. a source tells cnn both president obama and afghan war commander, general david petraeus were targeted by al qaeda. casey anthony leave as florida jail, and that will happen on sunday. she may be back in the legal spotlight on tuesday for a deposition and a civil lawsuit. a woman named zenaida gonzalez is suing for defamation.

she is saying anthony's lie has ruined her reputation and an ability to earn a living. good versus evil. the final battle. harry potter opened at midnight. the movie sold millions of dollars in advanced tickets. "harry potter" fans are elated, but deflated because it's the last part. >> i love this movie series. it's amazing. >> back to the scandal. rocking murdoch and his meda corporation. rebecca brooks was forced to design today. plus the scandal is starting to

blow up here in the united states. the justice department is investigating claims that one of the tabloids tried to hack into the phones of 9/11 victims and their family's. let's talk about the resignation here. rebecca brooks, she has issued an apology. did she know -- do we know if she knew what was going on? >> all we know is what was put on the record. she has denied knowing in advance this was going on, the hacking scandal. she does make the comment that now she is very sorry for what happened and seems ton acknowledging in a way by these comments, i want to reiterate how sorry i am as to what we now know what has taken place. the jury is still out if we could prove what they knew.

she has now resigned. >> and explain to us why the fbi, the justice department is now involved in this? >> well, it was parked -- the seed for this was an article in the british newspaper in which it was claimed that a retired new york cop, working as a private eye was contacted by the news of the world to look into hacking phone records, and even voice mails of 9/11 victims and their families. that's what prompted a big hoopla in the united states, understandably. a lot of pressure from congressional leaders and senators as well as 9nine w 9/1 families to start the investigation. the fbi investigation is under way and has been for the last 24 hours. a lot more to be done with this. i spoke with jim riches, who lost his son, a firefighter on

9/11, and this is what he thinks about the investigation. >> i think it was totally, totally ghoulish. people looking to make money off 9/11, off dead people, and if they did do it, let's see the results of the investigation, and let's get the facts and then if we have it i would hope that they would act and hold people accountable so this never happens again. >> as to what happens next with news corporation, we will have to see with regard to this investigation, however now rupert murdoch is taking out a full page ad, and it's topped off with the big letters, we are sorry, and it goes on to say they are sorry for the serious wrong doing that occurred. a big question among many others, where will the fbi's investigation will lead and high

how up? >> we wanted to know whether or not the fbi is investigating the american companies that fall under the news corp umbrella, the "new york post," and the "wall street journal," and fox, do we know if they are under the probe? >> we don't know. all sources are telling us is we are starting with the one newspaper, and let's see where the investigation takes us from there. >> all right. susan candiotti, thank you so much. u.s. troops are now starting to come home from afghanistan as part of the president's drawdown plan. and then how does the mayor of a major southern city deal with strapped budgets, crime and obesity rates? my interview with mr. reid. later, desperation comes to a head in a fight for housing.

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come to meineke for our free fuel-efficiency check and you'll say...my money. my choice. my meineke. the drawdown begins. the military says the first soldiers whose redeployment will not be replaced by a new rotation of u.s. forces. other troops are in the process of leaving according to president obama's plan, 10,000 american troops will be out of afghanistan by the end of this year. the full drawdown is expected to take place by the end of 2014. there are new revelations of documents seized in the takedown

of bin laden. they show al qaeda had a hit list, and bin laden wanted to destroy the aircraft carrying president obama and petraeus when they visited the region. fran townsend is joining us via skype. you're very experienced here. your experience invest gating al qaeda as well, does is this type of attract or strategy a surprise to you that they were going to go after the president as well as general paw tray is. >> the base was attacked because some were there, and we know military leaders and political leaders are, of course, subjects

of being targeted by al qaeda and terrorists groups, and as we know by all sorts of extremists groups. and that said, the security around them are very tight and those threats are taken very seriously. i will tell you it doesn't really surprise me that they are on the list, and we always behave in the counterterrorism community assuming they are on the list, assuming that terrorists want to target them and we put their security packages around them based on those threats. >> the information that we're getting is this was in a discussion phase, that this was not in an active phase, is that what your understanding was as well? >> it is. when i am talking to people in the counterterrorism community, there was no imminent actionable intelligence. there were things thrown around, and ideas thrown around and offered about what kinds of attacks and what sort of things they should do. we saw it right after as they

were initially going through it, and threat information from the department of home security, and most of those, they didn't fined any specific plans is what i am hearing. >> do they know if there are any other plans or plots that people are discussing or information about other plans targeting the tenth anniversary of 9/11 coming up? >> there was some suggestion that the notion of trying to have an anniversary attack for the tenth anniversary for 9/11 was among those found after the bin laden raid. bin laden -- al qaeda has not shown themselves to be big about anniversaries, but 9/11, they view as a strategic success for them, and they like public gatherings, and in some sense while they don't typically do anniversary attacks you would have seen how this could have been a great target for them. >> in light of what we have

heard from leon pennetta saying c al qaeda has been significantly downgraded, can they wage an attack in the upcoming anniversary? >> i think al qaeda would have liked to have a huge attack, but not just on the anniversary. if they could have done it they would have done it. the u.s. has hugely degraded al qaeda's capability, and when he talk bz we're at a moment when we have strategic success, you want to take out the leadership. so they don't seem to have the capability of super large-scale 9/11 type of attacks, but it doesn't mean they don't remain a

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time to go across the country for stories affiliates are covering. in texas, eight people were hurt when hundreds rushed to line up for low-income housing coupons in dallas. some were waiting all night so there was a big scramble to bet to the door. paramedics treated the injured

for cuts and scrapes. boston's logan airport, two airplanes collided. both planes were evacuated. in washington state, paramedics taking a man to the hospital for cancer treatment asked him if he could do anything else, and he jokingly said yes, they could take him and his wife to their son's baseball game. >> i just tried, you know, because i knew how much it would mean to him. so it touched my heart. >> the doctors were called and exceptions were made and jim and blanca orr were able to watch their son play, and he even hit a home run. a cheating scandal is rocking the atlanta school system. it's an administrative nightmare.

it's just one of the tough issues atlanta mayor, kasim reed is tackling. it's this week's segment. the mayor is leading the charge at the 10k. >> obesity is more than at an l atlanta problem, it's a southern problem. as a mayor of the city, i can start with myself. >> he is talking about taking on the alarming obesity epidemic, and the mayor is also talking about setting the pace and creating a path to fiscal responsibility for a city of more than 500,000 residents. he went from a $2 million

deficit in the red, to a surplus. he is making current employees contribute to their pensions, and new employees will have to enroll in 401(k)s. it is a gamble that paid off for reed now, but meant hurting some supporters. >> there's no question that i would not be mayor but for the support of my friends and labor. >> the city of atlanta is hurting much like the rest of the nation's urban areas. surprisingly, tourism and conventions provide the many jobs for atlanta residents. >> the city of atlanta is financing a $1.6 billion project

that provides 30 to 50 million in direct investment right now. >> he is also taking on the criminals, he says despite the drop in crime, he's not giving up. >> we hired more than 250 police, and stood up the largest police force in the history. >> another draw to atlanta was the gay population. but reed says it's not a city where gays will get married anytime soon. >> i support civil unions, and i have not evolved in believing to marriage equality. but i did vote against the amendment to ban gay marriage. five days of meetings still no deal. we will take a closer look at the political back and forth in

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here's a rundown on some of the stories we are looking at next. the political strategists tells us what is going on behind the debt ceiling talks. and then carmageddon. and later, team usa gets psyched to win the world women's cup in more than a decade. we will talk to a world cup champion about what it takes to dominate. and hopefuls are jumping into the debate over raising the debt ceiling. trying to turn up the heat on president obama and the democrats. that story from jim acosta. >> accused democrats and president obama of taking a low profile. >> the president to agree to cut federal spending and cap federal

spending and put in place a balanced budget amendment, and that's the answer for the nation. that's the line in the sand. >> sarah palin returning to one of her controversial catch phrases. >> we cannot default, and we cannot afford to restreet either. it's the time to reload. we reload with reality. >> michele bachmann accused the president and the treasury secretary of passing on what she called a misnomer. >> if congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, somehow the united states will go into default and we will lose the full faith and credit of the united states, and that's simply not true. >> the investor service said it was reviewing the aaa bond rate for the u.s. it's a question of who do you

trust, bachmann or bernanke? >> in the '80s, they did it to reagan -- >> ron paul released a new ad. >> 'the 90s brought more compromise and more broken promises and more new taxes. >> it doesn't mention that clinton balanced the budget. and 67% of the people would increase taxes on the wealthy and corporation. that won't fly with the gap candidates except for john huntsman. >> that was just a example of a new senator, you know, making

what is a political vote as opposed to doing what was important for the country. >> besides bachmann and ron paul, the other candidates don't have to cast a vote on raising the debt ceiling. jim aco jim acosta, cnn. president obama is holding out hope for a big deal, and republicans are standing firm on their opposition of any tax increases. joining us to talk about the standoff is our political analysts, david gergen. we have seen you and you have said it's time for a truce and cease-fire, and is that likely to happen in this climate? >> we still have tough road to go here. it will continue right through next week, i am afraid. i think there is an ever the in

the senate to come up with a bill, which would in effect bring a truce, and would satisfy the president and would satisfy mitch mcconnell and a lot of people in the senate and john boehner, and whether it would satisfy house republicans, that's a big question. >> two press conferences in one week, monday and friday, and one last week, and he's trying to make his case to the american people. this is working? is this helping his cause? >> i think he has helped himself modestly. he has pointed to the polls and his press conference showed today the support is building for the balanced approach he is looking for, which includes tax increases. we have a showdown coming between the more conservative elements of the republican party in the house of representatives, versus more moderate republicans in the white house, and that's going to play out next week. we don't know how it's going to

come out. it's still possible to go into default. i certainly hope not. >> what would break that impasse? you are looking at a power play here it seems within the republican party to determine who is the alpha dog? >> here is what i think will happen. the house will present a much tougher plan. this is what was called the cut, cap and balance. mitt romney was just supporting that. that's what they will vote on, and that's a tough plan to really shrink spending, and it will pass the house to get a majority vote. the senate will have an alternative plan which is much closer to what the president would accept, which is a much more modest cut but extend the ceiling through or pass the elections. the question is is the house prepared to accept the more moderate version. if they turn it down, we have

one problem on our hands and we could easily go into default. if they accept it, the bullet will miss us. >> david, real quick us, and you have been involved and watched many administrations, republican and democrat, have you seen things this gridlock on the hill before? >> it's hard to remember. there are times when we have gone through traumatic debates on the hill. in this case, i must say, it's putting a picture in front of the world is that discouraging, and i think it will have real consequences on interest rates and the willingness of the rest of the world to buy our debt. >> david gergen, thank you very much. >> thank you. they are shutting down a big part of a major freeway in los angeles that's happening this weekend. so the question, can californians survive without their cars?

karcarmageddon, just hours y from los angeles the 405 will be closed for hours for a bridge demoliti demolition. starting early this evening, officers will close freeway lanes one by one until they reach a full shutdown by midnight. so getting stuck in carmageddon

could be a nightmare for drivers, but not for late-night xhaedens. >> some of the local news stations are trying to help commuters with alternate routes. >> you can have a five-mile drive to the canyon, and once you hit the canyon, hike up the mountains, and then repel down and now take the l.a. river, and this will take you into the san fernando valley. it's as simple as that. >> very simple. very simple. >> we have to be serious about this, too. for weeks, public safety officials have been telling everybody, plan ahead, avoid the area or stay home. joining me is our meteorologist, chad meyers, who has been following this. and from san gabrielle, california, and he has been

covering traffic for 25 years. thank you for joining us as well, jorge. have people been listening to all of this and is it going to be that big of a deal? >> it's not a y2k if you will. we have had a huge publicity campaign by officials saying avoid the freeway, and just stay home or leave town if you can, but it's something that is part of living in southern california with all the freeways, that pass carries over 750,000 vehicles on a regular summer weekend. >> what are californians doing? are they staying home? big activities happening over the weekend? >> well, there are activities that were planned way in advance that you can't change. for example, over 100,000 people are expected at the memorial coliseum for a soccer game, and,

you know, there are other things that people have planned during the summer, weddings and parties and things and they have to plan for that or work around it. of course, all those side streets and all the streets within the l.a. basin, san fernando valley will be impacted because of the main stretch through the santa monica mountains that connected it to the basin. where does all the traffic go? it will go into side streets. people are being encouraged to stay home. some businesses have really taken advantage of this, and have come up with special offers. for example, you may have heard about jetblue offering a $4 commuter fair to the burbank airport to the long beach airport, and that's sold out. >> hi, this is chad meyers, and i have heard about the cheap

tattoos, and other things. >> from the traditional to the nontraditional, there's a spa treatment for just $40.05, named after the 405. >> yeah, drink that and then go drive on the road for the cheap maurg receiae ritas. they have grasped it and taken advantage of it, and people are having fun, and try to avoid and stay off the passes and the roadways altogether. >> thank you, jorge. >> we heard some of the hospitals are keeping their emergency staff in hotels close to the hospital, because they

don't want them -- because if there is a big emergency, they don't want the doctors to be stuck and take two or three hours to get there. >> i wonder if people will take them up on the offers. the tattoos or pet shops. that's like crazy. >> in 1996, we had that in atlanta, and they said don't go downtown, and the place was desseerte deserted. the girls are doing it. we will talk to women's soccer icon about the upcoming women's world championship soccer match. and now the help desk. joining me this hour, the executive editor at cbs money

watch.com, and the first question for you, ryan, this comes from mark in downing ton, pennsylvania, does it make sense for me to consolidated my retirement assets with one of the larger fund companies? >> i always get a lot of red flags when i hear that. you can diverse tify lots of stocks. so putting all your eggs in one basket is never the right way to go about doing it. talk to a adviser that will give you the plethora of securities you can have. 90% of the portfolio return, we have to make sure we are diversifying and properly allocating. >> yeah, and it's your money and savings and retirement, and be a little more careful.

>> bernie madoff proved us wrong. >> yeah, keep the expenses down. sarah in phoenix rights, my boyfriend and i are considering getting married, his house is in foreclosure and mine is paid off. >> is she sure she wants to marry this guy? >> that's the important one. >> and the good news is no, unless for some reason he jointly signed on any of these. as long as they are her assets, they could be married 100 years. i would advice, clear this up and get this thing out of the way. deal with the foreclosure. his credit will be awful for seven years, but they can live on her credit for the next seven years. >> as long as they stay married, right? >> yeah. can i have some ice cream, please ?

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the girls of summer, the women of u.s. soccer putting their sport back on the map with a win on sunday. they will come home world cup champs. ab abby wambach told me what it takes. >> we don't give up. we will not give up for the

entire 90 minutes we play on sunday, and i think it's going to be enough. i think we can do this. i know the players on my team, the coaches and staff, we have all put so much time and effort into training and preparing for this, and we will not let it go lightly. it's going to be a great match, and i can't wait to start it and hopefully we'll see we're champs at the end. >> and this team is often compared to the previous champions. brandy, thank you for being with us. there has been a lot of excitement and comparisons between your squad, which is the gold standard in u.s. soccer, and now the new team that is emerging from the shadows. do you think they have got what it takes? >> i think they absolutely have what it takes. i think abby hit a portion of what makes this team special,

they have a will and determination, and under any circumstances they will find a way to win. they have what good taemgz have, and great teams have it to a higher level. this team has a lot of same characteristics as our team did in 1999, and they are poised after going through some rough patches leading up to finally finish it off and take it home for the u.s. >> everybody loves the iconic moment in victory euphoria, you took off your shirt and slid across the field. what is the excitement like, the anticipation of what is going to happen? >> you named a quite a few things they will be experiencing over the next few days.

there is emotional highs and lows with playing sports and playing sports at the highest level, and especially there's pressure. it's not external pressure, it's the pressure they put on one another to be good and great every day in training, and then they will have to be great on sunday to beat japan, because japan is not only playing for the 21 players on the roster, but also a country grieving over the loss from the earthquake and tsunami. >> thank you, we appreciate it. excellent, and thank you so much. president obama talks about reaching an agreement on the debt ceiling. we will check in on how the markets are reacting.

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alison kosik, the market has been trading higher in spite of the debt ceiling talks. why? >> you said it, we have been watching stocks bounce in and out of the plus column. it really remains a nonissue

here at the stock exchange. so far, traders believe in the 11th hour agreement will be reached. the stalemate is viewed as a political crisis not a financial one. the debt ceiling is one of the many issues we're facing. after the break, i will have tips on how young people can get to work. stay with us.

talking a lot about the debt ceiling, and now i want to focus on the job crisis. young people are struggling to find jobs more than any other group. we will tell you about young intrapreneurs, but i want to go back to alison kosik at the new york stock exchange first. give us an idea of how bad this crisis is for young folks and what they have to do to get a

job. >> 18 to 24 ages, double the overall rate in unemployment. for one, the advice is get an internship. it may not pay you much or at all, but a good number of interns turn into full-time employees. as tempting as it is, don't rule out working on weekends or nights. and use connections. don't be afraid to ask people at your favorite store or your friend's dad, anybody that you know may be hiring or may know somebody else who is hiring, and also don't forget the power of the internet. there are tons of web sites out there for job seekers, and collegegrad.com, and experience.com, and that's just a few. and then another great one called coolworks.com. it helps you find a seasonal job in some very cool places like

yellowstone park, or guided raft adventures. >> yeah, take a break from this. that would be cool. and there are some young c intrapreneurs, they are creating some companies to hire people their own age. they met this weekend in washington to launch what they are calling their buy young initiative. >> today our time is thrilled to announce the launch of our buy young initiative, which is a targeted consumer movement to support companies in small businesses founded by americans under 30. fundamentally, though, buy young is about voting with your wallet or investing in the causes you believe in. >> what a lot of people don't realize the is fortune 500 companies are not creating jobs only, and collectively, we have created 7,000 jobs in the last year, and it's the small businesses that are creating jobs. >> all you really need is a can can-do get it done attitude and

you can make things happen. >> this is one of the most amazing events that i have been to, especially put together by young intrapreneurs themselves, we had everybody from the former ceo of mcdonald's to john mccain. >> i got involved in this work for one reason, you young people are the greatest asset that we have in our country to preserve our culture and the great founding principles this country was established on. you will either be victims of the future or owners of the future. i choose to mentor you in every way i can so you will be the owners of the future. >> i am going to be fine. i am going to be fine. i am going to pass on to my doting, and doing real well, but my grandkids and kids i am very concerned about. >> we do not have to wait for other generations or major companies orov